Songlinpo Dai Memorial Temple

Songlinpo Dai Memorial Temple

Songlinpo Dai Memorial Temple is located on the hill behind the former site of the Bai Mansion Prison. It got its name because the area is covered with pine trees. During the War of Resistance against Japan, in order to escape the summer heat and air raids, Dai Li, the head of the military intelligence agency, built a villa here for Chiang Kai-shek. However, Chiang rarely visited; it was mainly used by Dai Li. The site now mainly consists of a parking lot, a shaded platform, Dai Li’s guard room, Dai Li’s reception room, the Dai Memorial Temple, the tombs of martyrs Luo Shiwen and Che Yaoxian, the Songlinpo Execution Ground, and the mass grave. On the eve of Chongqing’s liberation, this place was one of the main execution grounds where revolutionaries in the concentration camp were massacred. Luo Shiwen, former Secretary of the Sichuan Provincial Committee, Che Yaoxian, a member of the Military Commission of the Western Sichuan Special Committee, General Yang Hucheng—one of the instigators of the Xi’an Incident—and the family of the “Little Radish Head” all perished here. On November 27, 1949, revolutionaries from the Bai Mansion Prison and Zhazidong Prison were taken in batches to the Songlinpo Execution Ground to be executed; during the massacre on November 29, revolutionaries imprisoned at the New World Detention Center in downtown Chongqing were killed in the large mass grave that had been dug in advance at Songlinpo. This horrific massacre began on September 6, 1949, and ended on the morning of November 29, 1949, with over 300 victims.

Source: Chongqing Party History Website

Dai Li (May 28, 1897 – March 17, 1946), Lieutenant General of the Chinese National Revolutionary Army and head of the Military Statistics Bureau (Juntong) under the National Government’s Military Committee. He was from Bao’an Township, Quzhou Prefecture, Jiangshan County (now Jiangshan City, Quzhou), Zhejiang Province. A graduate of the sixth class of the Whampoa Military Academy, he had previously served as a soldier in the Zhejiang Army under Zhou Fengqi before leaving the military and going to Shanghai, where he met Chiang Kai-shek, Dai Jitao, and others at the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

Due to Chiang Kai-shek’s trust, Dai Li was engaged in secret service and espionage for a long time, having been in charge of the Republic of China’s intelligence agency, the Military Statistics Bureau (Juntong), where he also served as deputy director... More detailed information about Dai Li ++